Civil Rivalry
by Blaquaza the Gentleman
Summary: May and Dawn are in a fierce love rivalry over their old travelling companion, Ash. As they head out on a new adventure, emotions run high and tensions even higher. Who will Ash chose, and will the other one want revenge? There's only one way to find out.
1. Pallet Surprise

**This is my first attempt at a longer fanfic, so if you have any opinions, please leave a review.**

**Just a disclaimer, I don't own Pokémon. Never have, never will.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Pallet Surprise**

Ash Ketchum, a young and talented trainer from Pallet Town in Kanto, has just finished his journeys in the vast Unova Region. After parting ways with his new friends Cilan and Iris, both he and his buddy Pikachu are returning to their hometown by ferry.

"Just think, Pikachu, we're nearly home. I hope we get there soon, though... I'm starving..." Ash said as his stomach rumbled.

"Pika Pikachu!" Pikachu shouted enthusiastically as he laughed at his trainer.

"Attention passengers... We have now arrived at our last stop, Pallet Town." A voiceover informed, the voice being broadcasted all over the ship.

Ash was staring at the sky, completely unaware of what was going on. He hadn't hear the message and didn't know where he was until a certain yellow mouse began tugging at his pants.

"Huh? What's wrong, Pikachu?" The raven-haired trainer asked, wondering why his Pokémon seemed to be in such a rush.

"Chu Pika Pi!" Pikachu sighed as he facepalmed. Ash gently nudged him, and the Pokémon then pointed over to Pallet Town, where Professor Oak's Lab could be seen, even if it was a fifteen-twenty minute walk away.

"Wow, it's hard to believe that my long journey in Unova is over... I wonder where we're going to travel to next. I'm surprised that I haven't seen any trainers that give me ideas on where to go, like Gary made me go to Sinnoh when he showed me how awesome his Electivire was." Ash spoke to himself as he remembered all of his travels since the first day he met Pikachu.

* * *

Meanwhile, May was stressing out; she knew that Ash was returning to Pallet Town, but she didn't want to bother Ash as soon as he got home. She figured that he was probably tired from all of his travelling and would simply just eat and go to bed when he got home.

"Ugh... What am I going to do?" She asked herself as she stared at the mirror. "Should I call today or leave it until tomorrow?"

May felt a hand on her shoulders. It was her little brother, Max. "May, I could hear you from downstairs, and you sound really worried about phoning Ash. Listen, I've known Ash for almost as long as you, and I can say that he won't be angry if you phone him today. In fact, knowing what he's like, he'd probably be more than glad to hear about you and how you did at the Johto Grand Festival, or even the Sinnoh Grand festival that you just came back from a few days ago."

"Thanks Max... You always know how to make me feel better." The brunette said with a weak smile on her face. She then paused for a short while when Max mentioned the Grand Festivals: in Johto, she finished in the Top 4 after losing to Solidad again, and in her next Grand Festival in Sinnoh, she finished in Second after a long and hard fight against Drew, who went on to tease her and make her feel even worse for losing, which went on to greatly damage her self-esteem. As a reflex, May clenched her fists at the thought of Drew, but came to her senses when she thought of how Max was cheering her up, and how Ash would be able to cheer her up if she did travel with him... That was, if he wanted to.

"May? Are you alright?" Max asked, waving his hand in front of his sister's face. "You've been spaced out for a while now."

"Sure, I'm fine." The brunette said as she scratched the back of her head. "I was just thinking about how comfy it will be to sleep in my own bed." She added to justify wy she was zoned out for so long.

May's brother pushed up his glasses and nodded silently before asking, "So, are you going to phone Ash today? maybe tell him your feelings?"

"Wh-what feelings!?" May shoued, blushing as red as a Tamato Berry. "I d-don't have any feelings towards Ash... I just want to travel with him again!"

The blue-haired Pokémon fan snorted at his sister's reply. "Come on May, don't be so transparent. It's been obvious that you've liked Ash since the day I first saw you two together, it's just that he's way too dense to see it."

The red-faced brunette looked at the floor. "That's not the best motivational talk I've heard, but it's more than good enough for me!" She screamed, immediately perking up. "I'm just gonna go and get something to eat before I call him, okay?"

"It's your call, sister!" Max replied cheerfully.

After getting something to eat and cleaning herself up a bit, May approached the video phone. She slowly dialed in the number for Ash's House.

* * *

Ash had finally arrived at his house, with Pikachu on his shoulder. He was glad to see his old friend Mimey working in the front garden, and the Pokémon was overjoyed to see his owner's son return. "Mime! Mr. Mime!" He said happily.

"Hi Mimey!" The raven-haired trainer shouted, just as happily as Mimey. "How've ya been?"

"Mr. Mime Mime!" The Pokémon answered. he knew that Ash wanted to find his Mum, so he pointed ot the kitchen.

"Thanks Mimey." Ash thanked Mimey for answering his next question before he'd even asked it. "Some things never change, do they?" The trainer and the two Pokémon let out a laugh. As the door was already open, Pikachu then ran inside, his trainer following him. "Mum, I'm home!" He shouted so that he could be heard throughout the entire house.

"Hey Ash!" Delia greeted, glad that her son was back safe and sound from Unova. "How was your journey?"

Ash smiled at his Mother's interest in his adventures. "It was great, Mum." The trainer said confidently. "My new Pokémon are really strong."

"That's great, Ash. I hope that I'll get to see your new Pokémon the next time I drop by Oak's Ranch." His mother said, as proud of her son as ever. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, dinner's ready."

Ash and Pikachu both sprinted into the kitchen andhad devoured most of their food before Delia had even sat down. "Some things never change..." She mumbled to herself as she began eating, much slower than her son and his Pokémon.

A few minutes later, the food on Ash's side of the table was practically non-existant. The raven-haired trainer and his electric mouse were bloated, and groggily walked up to bed. Suddenly, the video phone rang. Mimey had ran inside to answer it, but was beaten to the punch.

"I'll get that." Mrs. Ketchum whispered to Mimey so that she didn't wake Ash up. "Hello?" She said when she answered the phone.

"Hi Mrs. Ketchum." A voice said joyfully. "Is Ash home?"

* * *

**Did I end it in the right place? I'm hoping that this is a good way to begin the story. Tell me any of your thoughts in a review.**

**EDIT: I reworked and re-read certain parts of this that you reviewers told me to. I really appreciate your help.**


	2. Dawn of a Rivalry

**You reviewers are great. I'll be looking over the last chapter and fix some errors and wording errors. Anyway, here's the next chapter as part of a mini-marathon (or maybe I'm waiting for something that will effect the story next chapter :3); I hope you all enjoy!**

**Just disclaiming again; I don't own Pokémon. I wish I did, because I'd be able to get the newest games a little bit earlier.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Dawn of a Rivalry**

"Hello there May." Delia replied. "Ash has been home for a while now, but he's just gone to bed. I'll tell him that you called when he gets up tomorrow."

May nodded. "Okay. Well, tell him that I'm coming to Pallet Town... I just bought some tickets for a ferry online a couple of minutes before I rang. I'll be there tomorrow at 2:30 pm if there's no delays with the ferry."

"You're coming here? Tomorrow? That's great news! I'll prepare the guest room so that it's ready for you by the time you get here!" Delia gleefully responded; she loved it when Ash's friends stayed over, and she had a hunch that May and Ash would make a great couple.

The next morning, Ash was his usual self, refusing to get up for as long as possible. However, thanks to a quick ThunderShock from Pikachu, he woke up earlier then usual.

"Pikachu, did you really need to do that? It's the first night of sleep I've been able to have in my own bed for ages." Ash groaned, stretching and rubbing his eyes.

"Pikapi! Pika, Chu! PikaPika Chuchupi Chu Pi KaPiChu!" The electric type shouted, pointing downstairs in the direction of the video phone.

"Wait, May's coming here today!?" Ash shouted, unable to believe Pikachu. "That's awesome! We can battle and I'll get to see how strong her Pokémon have become."

RING-RING. The video phone was going off again. "I'll get it!" The raven-haired trainer shouted as he sprinted to the phone. When he answered it, her heard a familiar voice.

"Hey Ash!" The voice said happily. "How've you been?"

"Dawn! It's great to hear from you!" Ash shouted, just as happily as his friend. "I've been great! It was sad to say bye to Iris and Cilan, though. But enough about me, how are you?"

Dawn nodded. "That does sound like it would be tough... It was really hard saying bye to you too... And I've been great! I've caught a couple of new Pokémon, Piplup's evolved, and so has Buneary. We also came second in the Hoenn Grand Festival, and we lost to Nando, whp came to Hoenn too."

"That's a shame..." Ash mumbled sadly. "But second is great! Coming second in two Grand Festivals is something to be proud of!"

"Thanks Ash." The blunette said with a smile on her face.

"Dawn, can I just ask you something?" Ash asked, a little bit more serious.

"Sure, go ahead." Dawn as a little bit unnerved now.

Ash put on a thinking pose, and then burst out with, "What's the real reason you phoned? I know it sounds rude, but I don't think that you'd just phone to catch up; if you did, I think we'd be on the phone 24/7 talking to each other."

Dawn sighed as she tried to pull herself together. "Ash, I was wondering if you'd like to travel with me."

"Sure, Dawn. That sounds great!" Ash cheered as he posed.

"Pika Pika!" Pikachu agreed.

"Well, um... Here's the problem... In the heat of the moment, I kinda booked a ticket to Pallet Town for tonight. I know it sounds bad, but I just thought that it would be a good idea to drop by whilst I didn't know where else to go."

"It's not rude!" The young trainer told his younger friend. "In fact, I'll ask Mum if she can make you a bed for tonight."

"Ash, you're a real gentlemen, d'you know that?" Dawn chuckled.

Ash blushed. "Well, that's what I try to be!" He laughed awkwardly.

* * *

_"Come on May, pull yourself together... You've been around Ash before and this has never been a problem..." _ The coordinator told herself repeatedly. _"I know, my Pokémon will help calm my nerves!"_ She thought as the threw six PokéBalls into the air. "Come on out, gang!" She shouted, then joined by six Pokémon. Blaziken, Venusaur, Blastoise, Glaceon, Delcatty and, her newest Pokémon, Dragonair.

May acquired Dragonair when it was a feeble Dratini that couldn't fit in with the others. For one, it had a pink colour, and was therefore Shiny, secondly, it was incredibly shy, and finally, it was the weakest Pokémon in the herd. Due to being bullied by some of the stronger Dratini, Dragonair sought refuge in a forest near Blackthorn City. May eventually found Dragonair and caught it, trainign it for contests. One day, it evolved and was a huge hit at the contests, earning May her fifth Ribbon and getting her through the appeal round of the Grand Festival.

The coordinator and her Pokémon sat on the ferry, planning strategies for their next contests. Blaziken and Dragonair were bonding, due to both being May's first plan for a Double Battle round.

"Attention Passengers, we will be arriving in Pallet Town shortly." A voiceover said as the Kanto city came into view. May had Beautiflies in her stomach at this moment, and she was so worried about how she looked. She was staring into the mirror for around fifteen minutes, trying to perfect every single tiny error that she could see that nobody else would. By the time she had gotten out of the bathroom, the boat had arrived at Pallet Town.

Surprisingly, the brunette kept all of her Pokémon out of their PokéBalls as she walked over to Ash's house. She had trouble remembering where it was, but she worked it out eventually and knocked on the door.

"Mime! Mr. MiMime!" Mimey greeted with a warm smile on his face. He showed may to the kitchen door and then walked away to continue his chores. May chose to leave her Pokémon outside, but she let them relax, and they were all laughing with Mimey.

"Thanks." May gratefully said to Mimey, who just gave her a shout from the garden.

Ash had already finished his food, and May could hear him getting told off by Delia, who had been waiting for May so tha tthey could all eat together. Mat told Delia that she didn't mind, but Mrs. Ketchum insisted that they should all be eating at the same time, but then she gave May a plate of food and that too was gone in a matter of seconds.

"May!" Ash chuckled. "I see you've still got you're appetite, huh?"

May nodded. "Nice to see you too, Ash." She giggled.

"How are you and your Pokémon?" He asked her, trying to catch up with his old friend.

"I'm great," She began, "And so are my Pokémon. I've also made a new addition to my team: Dragonair. I caught it as a Dratini after it told Blaziken its sad story, and it's perfect for contests. And how are you, I take it that you ate before I got here."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Ash apologised as he blushed. "And I'm fine. I was going to see my Pokémon again today, but I didn't have the time. I was going to go over there now, so would you like to come with me?"

"I'd love it! My Pokémon and your Pokémon get along great! I wonder how your Bulbasaur will feel about my Bulbasaur becoming a Venusaur." May giggled.

"It'll be upset, alright." Ash was also laughing at how shocked his Pokémon might feel.

Shortly after getting to the bottom of Professor Oak's Lab, as asked another random question, "May, I don't mean to be rude, but why did you want to come to Pallet Town?"

May blushed slightly, but wasn't bothered because she knew that Ash was too dense to notice. "Oh, that wasn't rude. Well Ash, I'll be honest with you, I came to Pallet Town because..."

"Hey! Ash!" A familiar voice shouted, running over to the two. "Oh, and May! Hi May!" That last part sounded a little bit laboured.

"Dawn, I'm glad you could make it!" Ash greeted cheerfully.

"Me too. Hi Dawn!" May mumbled, trying to conceal her true feelings.

"Oh my Arceus, you're never gonna guess what!" Dawn screamed.

"What?" Ash and May asked in unison, both curious.

"I caught..." Dawn paused to make it more tense."A Jolteon! I've been waiting to tell you since the phone call because I wanted it to be a random surprise."

"When did you catch a Sylveon?" May and Ash asked, once again in unison.

"Well, when I was travelling in Hoenn, I came across this trainer called Virgil who had a whole team of Eevee and its evolutions. I asked him where to get one, and he said he'd tell me where I could find one if I beat him in a battle. So, my Quilava had a battle with his Vaporeon. It looked like I wasn't going to win, but then Blaze kicked in and Quilava learned Fire Blast, so that secured my win!" Dawn stated. "So Virgil told me of a place where I could catch Eevee, and after taking a while trying to get there, I found a cute little Eevee and I caught one. Then, I battled in a Tournament because it sounded like fun, even if I normally only compete in Contest, and I won! Amazingly, the prize was a Thunderstone, which I happily accepted and gave it to Eevee, knowing that it would evolve into Jolteon. It's been a great help ever since."

"Is it strong?" The curious trainer and coordinator questioned, wanting to know more about the mysterious Eeveelution. Whilst asking this, Ash tried putting his minds off of Virgil and his Team Eevee; the raven-haired trainer was happy that one of his most recent friends won the Unova League, but he was trying to think more positive, and dwelling on his losses wasn't going to help that, even if he never lost to Virgil directly. MAy noticed Ash was spacing out, but thought that it would be best if she didn't interfere.

Dawn also realised that Ash was in deep thought, and she to ignored it. She then put her finger on her nose. "That's for me to know, and for May to find out when she battles me with her Glaceon."

"Um, okay..." May mumbled, confused by Dawn's odd way of challenging May to a battle. "Lemme just go and get her." The brunette then went to go and find Glaceon, who quickly ran over to her. By the time they had got back, Dawn had let Jolteon out of it's PokéBall and it was speaking to Ash's Pikachu.

"That's a Jolteon?" May asked, thinking that the Eeveelution didn't look like a strong battler.

"You bet it is!" Dawn said confidently. "It's such a beautiful - and powerful - Pokémon."

Glaceon ran over to Jolteon, started talking to her and the two were actually getting along, upset that they would have to battle.

"Now let's start this battle!" Dawn screamed, making Ash fall over.

The raven-haired trainer got up and dusted himself off. "I'll act as referee. You'll both use one Pokémon, and you know how the rest works. Okay, battle begin!"

* * *

**Did you expect May to have a Dragonair, or Dawn to have a Jolteon? There's a cookie in it for you if you did! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review!**

**EDIT: To people re-reading this and asking why Dawn suddenly has a Jolteon, I changed the Pokémon she caught from Sylveon because I thought that Sylveon's type would be revealed shortly after I wrote this chapter, which would give me enough time to incorporate it into the story, but I was wrong.**


	3. Eon Vs Eon

**And so the rivalry begins. This chapter is going to be battle heavy (and short) for the most part, and it will be my first time writing battles, so please tell me how I did in a review. You reviewers are great support and feedback!**

**Another disclaimer; I don't own Pokémon, much to my disappointment.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Eon Vs. Eon**

"I'll get the first move!" Dawn declared. May grunted, but nodded to show that she was okay with it. "Jolteon, use ThunderShock!" The blunette commanded. Her Pokémon nodded and launched a small ray of electricity at Glaceon, who didn't dodge in time and recieved the full force of the attack.

"Wow, Jolteon does look strong. But never mind that... Glaceon, use Shadow Ball!" May shouted, her Pokémon hearing her and beginning to create the purple ball of 'light'.

"Jolteon, quickly dodge it!" Dawn squealed. The Lightning Pokémon nodded, and attempted to dodge the attack, but failed and was hit by Shadow Ball in the stomach, causing it to scream in pain. "Come on Jolteon, you can do it!" The Eeveelution's trainer encouraged. "Now give Glaceon a Super-Effective hit with Double Kick!"

"Glaceon, dodge it!" May yelled. Glaceon waited until Jolteon was ready to land the hit, and jumped into the air to avoid the attack. "Perfect... Now Glaceon, use Ice Beam!" Glaceon then fired the frozen beam at Jolteon, and it hit. A 'cloud' of dirt also rose up when the Electric-Type hit the floor.

Dawn was worried that she would lose this battle now, given how strong May's Glaceon had became since their last encounter back in Sinnoh. "Jolteon, use Pin Missle!" Once the dirt had disappeared, Jolteon hadn't moved, and was surrounded in ice.

"Jolteon is frozen!" May cheered, causing Dawn to grind her teeth. "Glaceon, use Shadow ball Rapid Fire, and follow it up with an Iron Tail!" May told the Fresh Snow Pokémon, which simply nodded and performed all of the moves with style and grace, but with enough power that they gave Jolteon a lot of pain. However, the Iron Tail cracked the ice, and Jolteon was set free. Without Dawn's command, it instantly attacked Glaceon with Bite, before usign Thunderbolt. Glaceon responded by using Ice Beam again.

The two elemental attacks clashed and caused a huge explosion. Once again, dirt flew into the air, making it hard to see. Shortly after, the dirt lifted, and both Trainers noticed that their Pokémon had been defeated simultaneously.

Ash was once again spacing out when the battle was over. Noticing what had just happened, he shouted, "Glaceon and Jolteon are both unable to battle, which means that the battle was a draw!" He pointed at the fainted Pokémon whilst he spoke, with Pikachu mimicking his actions.

May smiled, knowing that her rival was strong. "That was a great battle, Dawn. You're just as strong as you were when we battle at Sinnoh, if not stronger."

"Thanks May, you and Glaceon were awesome too!" The blunette replied, happily accepting her new rival's compliments.

* * *

Earlier that day, Ash was thinking about which Pokémon he was going to take with him on his adventures. He'd decided that he wasn't leaving with just Pikachu, and that he would maybe revisit one of the regions he had previously travelled around to challenge one of the new Battle Frontier facilities that had been advertised. _"Maybe I could go to the Johto or Hoenn Battle Frontiers; I've been to them both before, but they are home to some great Pokémon and strong trainers."_ The talented trainer thought as he remmebered his journeys throughout the two Regions. _"Thinking about Pokémon, though... Of course, I'll choose Pikachu, but for the others it's really hard to choose. I mean, Sceptile was great in the Kanto Battle Frontier, so I think I'll take him. Who else could I pick, though?"_

It was at this moment he started scanning his mind for a list of all of his Pokémon and which ones he would like to take with him. _"I enjoy Totodile's company, and he's really storng, so maybe he could come along too...Infernape was also a good battler, so he'll be a great addition to the team. Now I want to take some more of my older Pokémon, but I want to give some of the ones who travelled with me more recently another chance, because I usually call my old Pokémon like Charizard back into my party whenever I get to a Regional League. Wait, how about Swellow? I need a bird Pokémon in case something needs to be found, but he's another outstanding battler."_

An idea then came to Ash's mind. "_I think I'll leave an empty space, just so I can catch and raise at least one Pokémon, though, which means that I've got my team... For now!"_ It was at this moment that both Glaceon and Jolteon had used Ice Beam and Thunderbolt, which attracted his attention, but he was thinking about how bad the other Pokémon must have felt. Silence then surrounded the area of the battle, so Ash worked out that at least one Pokémon must have fainted. He then stared at the battlefield and saw that they had both fainted, so he shouted, "Glaceon and Jolteon are both unable to battle, which means that the battle was a draw!" The raven-haired trainer heard May and Dawn exchange compliments, and he gave a weak smile.

* * *

The group then proceeded to Professor Oak's Ranch, where surprisingly, nobody was there.

"Hmm..." May muttered as the found a post-it note. She then read it aloud,

"GONE TO VIRIDIAN FOREST WITH TRACEY TO STUDY POKÉMON HABITATS AND HOW THEY RELATE TO THE POKÉMON'S PERSONALITIES; SORRY IF THIS IS AN INCONVENIENCE.

-PROFESSOR SAMUEL OAK."

"Well then, I guess I'm going to have to write a post-it note myself." It took Ash several minutes to find apen and post-it note, but when he found the resources, he wrote,

"PROFESSOR OAK, I'M GOING ON MY TRAVELS TO ANOTHER REGION AND I'VE TOOK SCEPTILE, SWELLOW, TOTODILE AND INFERNAPE WITH ME. I COULDN'T TELL YOU IN PERSON BECAUSE YOU'RE IN VIRIDIAN FOREST WITH TRACEY.

-ASH KETCHUM."

May and Dawn both looked surprised. "You're going to another region!?" The brunette asked. "WIth Sceptile, Swellow, Totodile and Infernape!?" The blunette added.

"Yep, you bet I'm going to another region." Ash replied with a smug grin on his face. "I'm going to either Hoenn or Johto so that I can challenge one of their Battle Frotniers."

May clapped. "Oh, Ash, we should go to Hoenn. It's been a while sicne we've been there and it'll be fun to travel around my home region with you again."

"Ash, you should definitely go to Johto." Dawn advised. "We've all been to Hoenn and only you and May have been to Johto."

"Yeah, but Dawn..." The male trainer protested. "Hoenn's great, and it's bigger than Johto, so we'll all get to travel together for even longer!" He argued optimistically.

"Well why didn't you say so!?" Dawn cheered gleefully. "To Hoenn we go!" May and Ash both sweat-dropped, confused to why Dawn was acting so weird.

Later that evening, Ash had told Delia that he was going to Hoenn just moments before everyone was ready for bed. She seemed surprised, but she never let that stop herself being proud of her son. She just hoped that he'd be able to stay safe and out of trouble on his travels.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dawn and May were upstairs, sitting in the guest room before they went to bed.

"Dawn, can I tell you something if you promise to keep it a secret?" May asked quietly, quite nervous as she did so.

Dawn smiled and nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

May started twiddling her thumbs as she spoke. "Well, um... I'm... I'm in love with Ash!"

"No way!" Dawn gasped. "You're not going to believe this, May, but I love Ash too. I've loved him since the day we met, but he's just been too dense to see it."

May giggled. "Same here. I just love how considerate and kind he is to Pokémon, not to mention how he looks." The brunette blushed at the thought of Ash.

Dawn nodded again. "I know what you mean... He's my ideal boyfriend."

"Wait, Dawn..." May panicked. "If we both love Ash, how will he choose which one of us he wants to be with?"

Dawn gulped at the thought of losing Ash. She knew that May had knew Ash for longer, and that the two shared an incredibly strong bond. "Well, I guess that it's his choice, but we should try not to argue in case he loses interest in both of us."

"You're right... The worst thing in the world would be Ash leaving the both of us and falling in love with someone else... We'd both be unhappy forever. Let's just keep how we feel about Ash a secret for now, though." May said, surprisingly calm.

Dawn simply smiled and nodded her head for the third time to show that she agreed. "That sounds like a great plan to me!"

Little did the two coordinators know, however, someone had been listening in on this entire conversation; Pikachu. The Pokémon chuckled silently when the two girls confessed their feelings to once another, as he was positive that they both ahd feelings for Ash since not too long after he'd met them both for the first time. The Mouse Pokémon then went to Ash's bed and fell asleep before his trainer even went up to his bedroom.

"Pikachu, today has been a really great day..." Ash mumbled as he held the Electric-Type in his arms. "I just hope that we can all be friends when we go on our next journey to Hoenn, that everything stays exactly as great as today has been." He then stroked Pikachu and noticed that it was asleep. Ash then gave a weak smile and closed his eyes, hoping that the next day would come as quickly as he felt that this day had been.

**Yeah, I know that this chapter was a little cliché and cheesy, but a lot of stuff is about to happen in the next few chapters. If you have any ideas or any opinions, please leave a review!**


	4. An Eggcellent Opportunity

**It took me a little bit longer than I expected to get this chapter out; I've been reading a good book, and my internet has been acting out for the past couple of days.**

**Once again, I still don't own Pokémon.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: An Eggcellent Opportunity**

Early the next morning, everybody woke up early and instantly got ready to go out. Emotions were still a little bit high for May and Dawn after their confessions the night before, but they were trying to forget about that and quickly move on. The ferry to Littleroot Town was due to arrive at Pallet Town at 7:30 am according to their tickets, so they all had to be ready by 7:00 at the latest. However, they all woke up quite early and were ready by 6:50.

May and Dawn were sitting in the living room, waiting for Ash to finish his breakfast. They were both silent after telling each other how they felt about the raven-haired trainer, mainly because they didn't want to start an argument. Pikachu was sitting in between them, still thinking about why the two coordinators both love Ash, despite hearing them both explaining why yesterday. Not surprisingly, Pikachu was as dense as his trainer sometimes...

Moments later, Ash walked into the room, looking quite excited. He was dressed in the same clothes he wore on his Unova adventures, while May was wearing her Johto/Sinnoh clothes and Dawn as wearing the same clothes that she usually worn. All three wordlessly approached the door, and said their goodbyes to Delia and Mimey.

"I wonder if any rarer Pokémon have been found in Hoenn since last time we went there..." Ash pondered, which got Pikachu thinking about the same thing.

"There's lots of rare Pokémon there now." Dawn said with a grin on her face. "I even saw a group of Bagon in the wild when I was there last time."

May looked surprised. "Sure, I've seen a few Bagon before, but it's not often that you see them in the wild. I only usually see them on TV or with trainers."

"I know, but I meant Pokémon that not many people have seen or caught before." Ash said, hoping to hear about rare Pokémon he hasn't seen once.

"Well..." Dawn began, "There was this Pokémon that Barry caught. It's called Pancham, and it's apparently from somewhere called the Kalos Region, which no trainers can travel to right now because of a volcanic ash cloud covering the sky, and whirlpools covering the ocean. I have no idea why there are so many natural disasters are happening there, but some strong Pokémon must be living in Kalos to survive random climate changes and things like that."

May sighed. "Dawn, that's really interesting, but we don't need to hear the life story of a Region that we've never even heard of until no-"

"Wow, Kalos sounds amazing! I know where I'm going after we've been to Hoenn!" Ash interrupted, thinking about the Pokémon that he'd be able to find in Kalos. "And I'm definitely going to catch a Pancham, if I ever see one!"

As they were talking, they could see the ferry arriving in the distance, so they all quickly ran towards the harbour and raced onto the boat. Seconds after they were able to catch their breath, the ship started moving.

"We apologise for the forty-minute delay. We're now setting sail for Littleroot Town in the Hoenn Region!" A voiceover cheerfully shouted, followed by a crowd cheering. Most of the passengers must have been planning to go on a holiday to the Hoenn Region, which was known for its warm temperatures and tropical locations.

Dawn thought for a second. "Wait, how was there a forty-minute delay when the ticket said 7:30?"

May was also confused. She then glanced at the ticket again. She facepalmed, but then laughed, "It says 6:30, silly. I guess we're just lucky that there was a forty-minute delay."

"That's just typical, huh?" Ash asked. "The one day we're late, there's a delay. It's weird how luck turns out sometimes."

As he spoke, Ash got some more strange feelings towards both May and Dawn. He couldn't identify them, and thought that it would be a good idea to spend some time alone - even without Pikachu, his best friend - so that he could sort his head out. "Hey guys, I just need to clear my head for a minute, okay? Can you look after Pikachu for me?"

Pikachu was confused, but he saw May smile and the yellow mouse jumped into her arms. "Sure, we'll look after Pikachu for you." The brunette said with a smile on her face. Ash gave her a hug and walked off, asking himself a whole heap of questions. _"Why am I getting these weird feelings? Why am I going back to Hoenn, even though I've already been there? Is it something to do with how I feel?_

"May, I think we should talk." Dawn said seriously.

"What? Why do we need to talk?" May asked, slightly confused by the urgency in Dawn's voice.

The blunette sighed. "You know exactly why we want to talk... Ash."

May gasped, but then realised that this was inevitable. "What about him?"

"Well, maybe we can talk about the good times we've had with him. You know, to take our minds off this whole 'love triangle' situation." Dawn suggested.

Pikachu rolled his eyes and sighed, "Pika, ChuPi Ka PiPi Ka ChuKa." Which translated to, "I'm bored, I'll just go on a walk."

May and Dawn understood Pikachu, much to their surprise, and nodded. The electric rodent then smiled and ran off, glad to have the chance to get some fresh ocean air.

"Let's go to my room." Dawn said. May simply nodded and followed the confident blunette.

When the two coordinators reached Dawn's room, Dawn sat down on her bed, and May sat down on a chair. "So, what did you want to tell me about Ash?" May asked reluctantly.

"I've thought of a way that we could decide who Ash could be with." Dawn said excitedly.

May sighed, knowing that there'd probably be some kind of catch involved. "Go on then Dawn, enlighten me."

"How about whoever wins the Grand Festival gets to ask him out first? Or, if neither of us wins, whoever places higher. If we get knocked out at the same stage, then we'd put it down to a coin toss."

"No offence, Dawn, but that's a stupid idea." May replied. "We can't base what could possibly last for the rest of our lives on a silly bet."

The blunette huffed. "Fine, but why are you being so sensitive about this? You and Ash would only last about a week, and that's if you're lucky."

In that one second, May went from calm to furious. "Say that again, I dare you."

"You'll never last more than a week with Ash." Dawn taunted, a sly grin appearing on her face. "He's way more interested in me."

May's face became red, and it looked like smoke was coming out of her ears. "Don't you ever think that Ash is more interested in you than in me. You're just a nasty person who likes to make people feel insecure about themselves."

At this time, Blaziken popped out of its PokéBall, as did Dawn's newly evolved Prinplup. The two Pokémon reflected the feelings of their trainers, and glared at each other angrily. Over the Pokémon grunting, the two female trainers carried on shouting insults at one another.

Meanwhile, Pikachu had finished his stroll and was nearing Dawn's room. He heard an argument, but decided not to do anything that could be seen as irrational. He slowly opened the door, and the brunette and blunette instantly silenced when they noticed the rodent walk into the room, which made him even more confused.

"Oh, hey, Pikachu." They both said nervously at the same time, hoping not to worry Pikachu. The mouse had caught onto the fact that his friends has been arguing, and decided not to mention anything unless asked first.

"I think you know that we've just had a little argument, don't you?" May asked. Pikachu nodded, showing that he had heard.

Dawn scratched the back of her head. "Well, Pikachu, can you not tell Ash about it?" Once again, Pikachu nodded. This time, May picked him up and hugged him. "Aw, you're such a good friend." She complimented. The electric mouse then blushed and gave a little laugh.

"We'll be arriving at Littleroot Town in two-three minutes." A voiceover said.

"Pika Chu! KaPika, Chu, PiPiPiKaChuPi, 'PikPika ChuKa Pika! ChuPiPika! Pikachu!?'". Pikachu said, worrying about what Ash would be saying if they didn't meet up with him before they arrived at Littleroot Town. The girls understood him once again, and they all ran out to meet Ash.

"Hey guys, it's nice to see you all again!" Ash said optimistically, appearing to have worked out whatever problems he was facing before. "Now the ferry has stopped, so we should get off before we get the staff literally pushing us off."

May and Dawn giggled and then nodded, with Pikachu returning to his regular spot on Ash's shoulder. As they ran, a clearly impatient trainer who was also sprinting, but whilst holding an egg crashed into Ash.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" He shouted angrily. However, he had left his egg with Ash.

Ash picked up the egg and shouted, "Wait up, you've forgot your egg!"

"Keep it!" The trainer bellowed loudly as he ran off.

May sniggered. "Well Ash, I guess you've got the sixth member of you team already."

"Yeah, I guess I have..." He replied. "I wonder what it will hatch into."

The egg was light blue, with black streaks on the top and the sides. Small white circles appeared slightly below the top black streak, giving the egg a symmetrical look. Like all Pokémon eggs, this one could hear the trainers on the outside, and laughed silently because it could hear them talking about it. The egg was also giggling because the trainers had no idea as to what Pokémon it really was, something that tickled it.

* * *

**For some reason, I'm not a big fan of this chapter. I'm trying to make it a little bit longer by adding in some more detail, but if there's any way you think I can improve it, leave a review.**


	5. Hatching a Plan

**Sorry that it took this long to get this chapter out; I've had lots of homework and family meals out this week.**

**Here's the disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, and it'll take me a long amount of time to get the cash to buy it from Nintendo.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Hatching a Plan**

After walking for a couple of hours and eventually arriving at the Littleroot Town Pokémon Centre, Ash, May, Dawn and Pikachu were exhausted and ready to call it a night. Of course, this was after Ash and May had ate as much as they physically could. As they did this, none of them realised that they'd forgot to ask Nurse Joy if she could tell what the egg was going to hatch into like they said they would.

"Ash, for a trainer who's been to five regions, you really can be disgusting at times." Dawn mumbled, hanging her head in shame as other trainers stared at the freaky eaters. Pikachu giggled, but was interrupted by one of his trainers' incredibly loud burps. Both the blunette and Pikachu facepalmed at this point, whilst May just stopped eating and pushed her food to the side. "Ugh... I'm so full..." She complained, getting up and walking to her room. Pikachu followed, hoping that the two coordinators wouldn't end up in the same room at the same time to finish their argument. The Pokémon was surprised by how civil the two had been, despite their recent rivalry. Whilst she was trudging towards her overnight bedroom, May couldn't help but notice a poster advertising a Pokémon Contest that was taking place in Oldale Town next week.

"Maybe I should go to bed too..." Dawn said as she also walked off. Ash rolled his eyes, told Dawn goodnight, and walked away, making sure he picked up the egg before he left. The egg was a mystery at the moment; none of the trainers, or even Pikachu knew what Pokémon it would hatch into, which caused great excitement as well as great expectations. Despite this, Ash forgot the plan he'd made earlier involving Nurse Joy, and the thought of what he hadn't remembered came to mind the second that his face hit the bed.

_"Wait! I forgot to ask Nurse Joy which Pokémon that my egg will hatch into..."_ Ash thought as lay on his bed, closing his eyes and wanting to just go asleep instantly. _"Oh well, I'm too tired now, so I guess that I'll just have to ask her tomorrow."_

As soon as he thought that, the raven-haired trainer sleeping began dreaming about his newest adventure, and his two coordinator friends did the same in their respective rooms not much later. Pikachu was still making sure that nothing happened between May and Dawn, so he lay in May's room, hoping that his sleep wouldn't be interrupted any time soon.

The next morning, Ash turned over to the other side of the bed, and noticed that the egg was missing. Silently panicking, he sent out Totodile to help him look, and the Pokémon performed its usual jolly dance. It then looked at the balcony and saw Pikachu speaking to a baby Riolu that was using ThunderPunch on a tree.

"Wait, that Riolu knows ThunderPunch!" Ash screamed loudly, unaware of the fact that he was talking only to himself. "Awesome! And it looks similar to the pattern from the egg... That means that the egg must have hatched overnight! Its old trainer must have walked a lot with it, then, because it usually takes steps or some kind of movement to make eggs hatch." Even though he didn't know it, Ash was quoting one of his old friend Brock's lectures on Pokémon breeding and eggs.

* * *

Knowing that Pikachu was gone, Dawn crept into May's room and told Lopunny to use Ice Beam on the sleeping trainer. The Pokémon nodded and used the move that it was told to, which froze the sleeping brunette. Dawn laughed silently as her Pokémon ran out of the room. Lopunny then ran out of the room without making a sound, and was greeted by a proud smile from her trainer.

Little did they know, May had just opened her eyes as Lopunny entered the room, so she saw the Pokémon leave and the grin on her trainer. At this point, the usually calm brunette had became as furious as when she doesn't get to eat; she was going to get revenge on Dawn, regardless of what she'd have to go through. However, she knew that offending her rival wouldn't be something that would impress Ash. She needed a crafty plan, and as if by magic, she had just thought of one. She knew that she may have been stooping to Dawn's level with this scheme, but all that was on her mind was getting revenge, simply for the satisfaction of making Dawn upset\angry.

* * *

The second that he had finished getting dressed, Ash sprinted down towards Pikachu and Riolu, with Totodile right by his side. The trainer had finally caught up to his Pokémon, and he was proud to see a strong looking Riolu use ThunderPunch. _"Wait, I've just realised... Isn't ThunderPunch an egg move that Pokémon can only learn through breeding!? I didn't think that Pokémon could learn moves that way when Brock told me the first time, but I guess I was wrong... I'm just wondering what Pokémon were its parents."_ He thought as he watched the Fighting-Type use the punching move surprisingly well for a newly-hatched Pokémon.

"I've got an idea..." Ash thought out loud. "Totodile, what do you think about having a battle with the newest member of our team?"

Totodile cheered and did another dance, approving the idea of battling Riolu. It took a battle stance, and surprisingly ditched its normal carefree personality; Totodile wanted to prove itself to Ash after not battling with him for a considerable amount of time. Likewise, Riolu took a battle stance and was hoping to impress its new trainer with the battle skills that it developed from watching its original owner's Pokémon battle.

Ash thought for a minute. "I'll let you two battle yourselves, just to see how you battle each other without me telling you what moves to use. I don't know why, but it sounds like a cool idea."

Totodile and Riolu nodded. The Water-Type instantly began the battle by using Water Gun, which Riolu easily dodged. The Fighting-Type then gave Totodile a strong ThunderPunch, which threw the Big Jaw Pokémon onto the floor. A wave of dust swept up into the air, and the second it had cleared, it was shown the Riolu, despite being a newborn Pokémon, had defeated Ash's veteran Totodile in one hit.

"RiOlu RiOluOlu Ri OluRiRi!" The victor shouted, happily jumping up and striking a pose. Totodile was disappointed, but it walked over to Riolu and shook its hand as a sign of good will. Pikachu smiled as he watched the two Pokémon gain respect for one another.

_"Riolu is really strong..."_ Ash wondered, analysing the battle and its shocking outcome. _"It must have been training whilst it was in its egg, somehow... Anyway, I wonder if I'll be able to use it in my first battle against the first Hoenn Frontier Brain."_

Once May had thawed out due to the natural sunlight, she thought of a plan. Knocking on Dawn's room, she as, with Lked, "Hey Dawn, did you know about the Contest that's being held at Oldale Town?"

"No, I didn't know anything about it." Dawn said, with Lopunny cheerfully standing by her side. "But I guess that I'm going to be joining it, even if me and my team haven't had much time to train yet. So, are you entering it?"

"You bet that I'll be entering the Contest!" May cheered confidently. "Well, see ya later!" The brunette added as she walked off. Dawn just gave a smile and sat in her room, thinking of combinations for the Contest.

At this point, a pink powder crept through the windows, causing Dawn to fall asleep. Vines then grabbed the blunette and attatched her to the posts of the bed. Lopunny was alarmed at first, but was quickly put to sleep by the powder.

"Well done, Venusaur!" May thanked, stroking her Pokémon on its head. "That was great; hopefully Dawn can get what she deserves now after being so horrible to me for no reason. I know we both like Ash, but there's no need to bring underhand tactics into this. Of course, I'll get revenge on her if she attacks me, though." That last sentence was said with a creepily devious grin on her face.

After the powder had cleared, Dawn woke up and saw Lopunny sleeping comfortably on the floor. She tried moving to help her Pokémon, but she didn't budge because of the vines tying her to the bed. "Lopunny!" The blunette coordinator shouted. "Use Dizzy Punch on these vines!"

Rubbing her eyes, Lopunny punched the vines until they had all broke. Dawn thanked her Pokémon and returned it to its PokéBall, before swearing on her life that she would get revenge on May.

**So, quite a bit happened in this chapter. It took quite a while to write, which caused further delays to when it would be edited and published. I'll try and work on the other chapters quicker to make up for this, though.**

**Also, I owe a huge thanks to you folks that are leaving reviews; you're the reason that I edit out the mistakes I make or why I try to clear up some grammar mistakes. So if you have the time, please leave a review. You can also PM me if you have any ideas as to where the story should go, as I had only originally planned out the first five chapters.**


	6. Underhanded Tactics

**Sorry that this chapter took so long to come out... The original version either didn't save properly or I completely forgot to save it. :(**

**And here's the disclaimer you've all been waiting for: I don't own Pokémon. ;D**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Underhanded Tactics**

As Ash, May, Dawn and Pikachu were getting ready for their not-so-long walk to Oldale Town, the electronics in the Pokémon Centre completely shut down; lights, computers, and TVs were turned off, with the only things that stayed on being the healing machines.

"What's going on!?" Ash asked, with Pikachu mimicking him.

May shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea, but we'll need to find out before it becomes a problem."

"Maybe that's not such a good idea." Dawn said hastily. She was acting surprisingly suspicious, but neither of the other two trainers or Pikachu managed to pick this up. "We could be biting off more than we can chew; there could be another run-in with an evil team that isn't as much of a joke as Team Rocket. You know what I mean, something that could get us hurt."

"Dawn, you can be as negative as you want to be, but I'm going to help sort things out." May stated, before walking off and letting Glaceon out of her PokéBall. "I don't know why you're acting so strange, but stay here if you really want to."

Ash followed the brunette. "I'm going too; if you don't want to come with us, stay here and make sure that everybody is alright." As he said this, the raven-haired trainer let Swellow out of his PokéBall.

"Sure." The blunette said, before walking off towards her room. _"Luckily for me, they're all too dense to work out that this is a part of my revenge plan. Hopefully, my 'guest' will be here in person before they get back."_

* * *

**TWO HOURS LATER**

"Dawn, I think you might want to see this!" A voice shouted from her room.

The coordinator immediately picked up the pace and started sprinting, before she eventually stumbled into her room and landed on the bed. "What is it, Conway?" She asked curiously.

"Well, you've got what you wanted; I hacked the system." The 'Poké Nerd' proudly boasted. "Nobody will be able to view the information for fellow coordinators in a five-mile radius."

Dawn hugged Conway, causing him to blush. "I owe you one, Conway! If I win the contest, I swear that I'll go out to dinner with you like you asked me to. I'll just say this again, though... IF I win the contest. If I don't, then that's too bad." A thought then pressed on her mid. _"May and Ash have been gone for a while now, I'd have thought that they'd have caught me here with Conway by now."_

* * *

Ash and May had been searching for a while and found no clues or information at all. "Ash, I hate to say it, but we're going to have to give up." The brunette mumbled sadly. "We've found absolutely no evidence in the two hours that we've been hunting for clues."

"Yeah, you're right, May." Ash replied, upset that he hadn't found any leads whatsoever. "Let's go back to the Pokémon Centre."

"You know, we've actually been looking around near the Pokémon Centre for a while; I was about to tell you before, but I wanted to see exactly how long it would take you to realise it." The Hoenn coordinator giggled.

Ash laughed, "I'm surprised that I didn't see it, really."

Pikachu then noticed something in Dawn's room out of the corner of his eye. "PikaPika ChuKaPi!" The electric mouse screamed, hoping that the trainers would realise that he was trying to get their attention.

"What is it, Pikachu?" Ash asked, worried about what his Pokémon may have seen. May was also concerned, but she chose not to say anything.

"Pika Pikachu KaChuPi PikaChu Pikaka ChuKaPi PiPi Ka PiChu!" The rodent exclaimed. His trainer was surprised by what he had to say, but May genuinely didn't understand a word.

"May, Pikachu is basically saying that when he looked into Dawn's room, he saw a Poké Nerd called Conway on a computer." Ash explained. "I'll just add on to that by saying that me and Dawn know Conway from our time at Sinnoh, and he is a skilled trainer who is great with research, technology and things like that, and he could probably be capable of hacking into the Pokémon Centre's computers, but he's also smart enough to make sure that the healing machines don't get turned off."

May nodded. "That makes sense... Now before anything else could happen, we need to go and speak to Dawn and see if she has anything to say. You never know, Pikachu might have just saved the day."

The trainers then returned the other Pokémon besides Pikachu and carried on walking to the Pokémon Centre. When they arrived at Dawn's room, all of the lights and computers were still not working, so it was dark and hard to see, but Conway was nowhere to be seen when they arrived at Dawn's room.

"Anything you're not planning to tell us, Dawn?" May asked in a way that would hopefully provoke Dawn and make her blurt something out. "Nothing suspicious or sinister going on whilst we've been gone?"

"N-no... Nothing at all. Why are you asking that?" The panicky blunette replied as she backed away uncomfortably.

Ash shook his head as he watched the interrogation. "Listen May, I don't think that playing detective will work; I think that we should leave for Oldale Town so that we can get some sleep and register you for the Contest."

_"Phew, saved by the bell..."_ Dawn thought gratefully. _"Now I just need part two of my plan to go ahead like I planned and everything will be alright."_

Walking out of the Pokémon Centre, the group noticed Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny thoroughly examining the area around them.

"Have you found anything yet?" Ash asked the two.

Both women shook their heads. "No, not a single lead." Jenny answered unhappily.

"That's unfortunate..." Dawn mumbled. "Oh well, let us know if you do find anything."

"I'll be sure to let you know." Nurse Joy replied, clearly happier than her colleague.

The groups then waved at each other as they carried on with what they were doing; Ash, May, Dawn and Pikachu carried on walking to Oldale Town, whereas Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny stayed put and carried on with their investigation.

Oldale Town wasn't a very long walk away, and it took even less time when you had two coordinators that were bursting with excitement about the next contest that they could join. Surprisingly, May and Dawn seemed to get along for the first time in a while as they talked about dresses, move combinations and cute Pokémon. Not wanting to listen to this conversation, Ash let Indernape out and he let the Fire/Fighting-Type play with Pikachu.

A few minutes passed, and the group eventually arrived at Oldale Town. Much unlike how it usually was, the town was packed with people, mainly coordinators.

"I wonder how many coordinators are here..." May thought, worried at the sight of hundreds of people.

Dawn nodded. "It's really strange... Maybe this Contest is a really huge one to celebrate the new 'season'."

Ash had no idea of what to say, so he kept quiet. "Well, there's no point spending so much time panicking about it, so let's just go the Pokémon Centre and prepare for sleep."

The two females nodded and raced each other to the Pokémon Centre, with Ash just trailing on behind. _"Girls sure are confusing... One minute they hate each other, and the next they're best friends."_

By the time the two coordinators had been given their room keys, Ash arrived and he sat down for a minute before getting his key. However, the computers, lights and other electronics apart from the healing machines still weren't working, but all three trainers were too tired to notice at this point.

And all three of them were unaware another coordinator was there, also intending to enter the next Contest.

* * *

**So, any ideas as to who this coordinator is? Leave a guess in the comments. This chapter took a while to get out because I've been out with friends most days of the week, and the others I've been writing. If you have any opinions of the story so far, also leave a comment and I'll be sure to read it (though I may not always reply).**


	7. New Contests, Old Faces

**Another few days, another chapter. This one was quite hard to think of ideas for, specifically for the 'guest character' (it's really hard to write as such a 'quirky' character). This is my first time writing a Contest Battle of any kind, so it might not be that good.**

**And the disclaimer; I don't own Pokémon.**

* * *

**Chapter 7: New Contests, Old Faces**

May and Dawn had finished their Contest entries, and were just thinking about strategies and which Pokémon to use. May had decided on using Dragonair for the Appeals Round, whereas Dawn was going to use Togekiss.

"My oh my, look who it is!" A voice shouted from behind them.

Both of the coordinators turned around wearily for a second as they tried to work out who the voice belonged to, until May recognised who it was. "Harley! I didn't know that you were going back to Hoenn!"

"Well, I was going home to visit some old friends, and then I heard about this Contest and I couldn't pass it up!" Harely cheered enthusiastically.

Dawn was just smiling awkwardly. "May, who is this guy?"

"Oh, this is Harley; he was one of my rivals from practically the beginning of my journey as a Pokémon Trainer." May replied, thinking about the times that she had wanted to kill Harley, but also the times that they shared as friends. "And Harley, this is Dawn; she's another of Ash's old travelling buddies, but she's from Sinnoh."

Harley had a smug grin on his face. "Ah, so you're who Ash replaced May with as he travelled through Sinnoh... Nice to meet you, anyway."

Dawn blushed involuntarily. "I guess so... But I wasn't really a replacement, just someone he journeyed with when we were both in Sinnoh, but with Brock too. And introductions aside, I really need to prepare for the Contest, so I'll be outside if you need me."

"Sure, but you haven't got long; the Contest starts in an hour." May said, also wanting to train her Pokémon. Harley noticed this and then suggested, "Ah, I have a perfect idea! Why don't we train our Pokémon together, honey?"

The female coordinator really didn't want to train her Pokémon with Harley, but saying that to his face would be rude, and she remembered the last time she offended him, he practically wanted to kill her. "That sounds great! I'll finally get to see how strong you and your Pokémon have gotten since Sinnoh... It's been a long amount of time, surprisingly."

"Um, it's only been around two months, deary." Harley answered, confused. "It's not that long when you think about how you haven't seen Solidad and... Drew in an even longer amount of time."

Training his Pokémon outside, Ash had finally managed to fully perfect Riolu's ThunderPunch. The Fighting-Type Pokémon was training with Sceptile, and the Grass-Type had took a few hits before finally defeating its rival with a strong. Critical-Hit Leaf Blade.

"Way to go, Sceptile!" Ash shouted proudly. "Riolu, you were just as great! Now we need to go and get something to eat before Pikachu gets angry, so let's go back to the Pokémon Centre."

As he was about to leave, he accidentally walked into Dawn. "I'm sorry Dawn, I didn't mean to walk into you like that."

"Oh, no need to worry." Dawn replied as she blushed slightly. "I'm just going to train my Pokémon for the Contest, and if you want to watch that's fine."

"'Course I'd come and watch you!" The raven-haired stated happily. "But Pikachu and the others are really hungry now, so I'm going to take them to the Pokémon Centre. If you're okay with it, I'll catch ya later if you're still training.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" The blunette screamed excitedly. "If I'm not here, though, I'll be preparing for the Contest. In Hoenn, you don't need any fancy dresses in Contests, so I'll have more time to train and need less time to prepare myself and Togekiss."

* * *

May was putting some final touches onto Dragonair's moves whilst she was giving combination advice to Harley. "I think it would be really cool if Cacturne used Bullet Seed and then used Needle Arm to throw the seeds at the audience. It's good when you get the audience involved in a performance, because they always remember YOUR performance more than everybody else's."

"May, honey, I've been in the Contest business longer than you..." Harley sighed. "But your advice is great! I'll definitely use that combination in my appeals, and I'll try to use it with Ariados, Banette and my other Pokémon."

"See? Just a little idea is all it takes for a certain thing to become your staple feature." The brunette added with a smile on her face. "Now do you have any ideas for Dragonair?"

Harley quickly assessed Dragonair, and then he grabbed May's PokéDex and checked the Pokémon's moves. "Right, here's an idea for you, ... Your Dragonair could use Ice Beam, and follow it up with Dragon Tail, which would be similar to what you told me you told me to do with my amazing Cacturne!" He gave a peace sign and winked at May as he said this.

"Thanks Harley, you've been a great help." May thanked, beginning to walk away. "I'll leave you hear to perfect your technique whilst I work on mine; good luck in the Contest.

"You too, Honey." The purple-haired man replied with a grin on his face. _"Now to find May's little boy-toy to tell him something important..."_ He thought, beginning a search for Ash.

Ash and Pikachu were walking near where May and Harley were practicing earlier, when they were suddenly greeted by Harley and his Cacturne. "Ash and Pikachu, it's nice to see you again!" "Cac! Cacturne!" His Pokémon added.

"Nice to see you too, Harley." Ash said whilst Pikachu shouted, "Pika ChuPiKa PikaPiChuPi!"

Harley then looked at the floor and said, "Ash, can I ask you a question?" At this moment, Cacturne and Pikachu started playing far enough away so that they were out of hearing range.

Ash smiled. "Sure, ask me anything."

Harley grinned, "Okay then, here it goes: how to you feel about May and the blunette?"

Ash blushed and seemed surprised. "As long as you promise to keep it a secret, I'm fine. I like them both as friends, but I'm not sure if I like one of them more."

"And the one you like more is?" Harley questioned, eager to know the answer.

Ash's head sunk as he thought of rejection. "I... I can't say. I've told you too much already..."

"Sure you can, dear." The purple-haired 'man' said confidently. "I won't tell a Spiritomb's soul, if that's what you're worried about."

"No, Harley, I'm sorry, but I can't." The raven-haired trainer mumbled. "I'm too scared of them telling me that they don't like me back... That would break my heart, and I just won't be able to take it."

Harley put his hand on his mouth and gasped. "Oh Ash, I didn't know you were such a sensitive person. Well, I guess that there's nothing I can do to make you change your mind, so I'll see you in the audience at the Contest, and I hope that you can cheer me on." The strange person said as he walked towards the Contest Hall. "Turne! CaCacturne!" His Pokémon said, seeming sad that it had to leave Pikachu as it walked over to Harley.

"Sure Harley, I'll be rooting for you in the Contest, as well as May and Dawn!" Ash exclaimed, waving to his friend. Pikachu ran over to Ash, and exclaimed, "KaPi, PikaKaPi ChuChu!" to his new friend Cacturne. Both Pokémon smiled as they exchanged goodbyes with one another.

The Contest was just about to begin; May and Dragonair were preparing, as were Dawn and Togekiss. Harley and Cacturne were having a pep-talk before they had to go on to the stage, as they were the first coordinator and Pokémon duo to perform in the Contest. All coordinators had one person on their mind for different reasons, and that person was Ash.

* * *

**Another chapter that wasn't too great, but it's slowly building up to something that will happen in the next chapter that will make everything more dramatic. So, for now, I'll leave you waiting on another chapter until I have the time to finish one (I'm usually quite busy now, which is why writing chapters takes considerably longer).**


	8. Revenge Isn't Beautiful

**This chapter took a considerably less amount of time to write... It's my first ever group of Contest Battles, so they may not be the best. And I decided to skip out Vivian and the judges' comments, simply because it's easier not to write them.**

**And here's some food for thought; I don't own Pokémon, not even one share of stock.**

**Chapter 8: Revenge Isn't Beautiful**

After Vivian introduced the Contest and worked up the crowd, it was Harley's turn first. "Come on out, Cacturne dear!"

Cacturne appeared out of its PokéBall and gave a huge roar, much to the delight of the crowd. As Harley commanded him, the Scarecrow Pokémon used the attack combination that May had showed them; the Bullet Seed and Needle Arm combination. The crowd cheered loudly as Cacturne followed this up with a quick Sucker Punch into the air.

May was told that she was next, so she was putting the finishing touches on her technique. Strangely enough, Dawn was absolutely nowhere to be seen, she thought as slight paranoia got the better of her and made her lose her focus. The brunette simply washed these thoughts away by staring at Dragonair's beautiful Ice Beam and Dragon Tail combination. A steward then came and told her that it was her turn to go on stage.

Dawn was one of the very last to perform, and she couldn't be bothered watching the others, so she decided to sabotage May whilst she could. She climbed up to the top of the Contest stage area, and as May came onto the stage, she dropped buckets of water so that she would lose her balance and fall. This worked, but security guards dotted around the area noticed the scheming blunette and began chasing her.

May simply ignored this hurdle and commanded her Dragonair to use the Ice Beam and Dragon Tail combination. The serpent-like Pokémon obliged and decided to use a quick round of Thunderbolts to add to the already blinding, glistening effect. The crowd applauded deafeningly at this, and May returned backstage with a huge grin plastered on her face.

In a matter of moments, the guards honed in on Dawn and captured her. "Are you a coordinator in this Contest?"

"U-um... Ye-yeah..." Dawn mumbled, scared at the thought of being surrounded by seven or eight huge henchmen.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you're disqualified, then." Another guard said, seeming to feel sorry for Dawn. "Remember, cheating ain't ever the answer, so never stoop that low again."

Dawn nodded uncomfortably. "Oh, okay... I'm really sorry." She apologised as she ran off towards Ash.

"Hey Dawn, how's it going?" Ash asked, with Pikachu happily mimicking him.

The blunette hung her head in shame. "Ash, I don't quite know how to say this... Alright, here goes; I was disqualified from the Contest."

"Woah, hang on there, why were you disqualified?" The raven-haired questioned as he thought of all sorts of make-believe scenarios.

"I-I'm really sorry..." Dawn groaned. "I... I kinda cheated in a way."

The trainer bobbed his head to the side now. "Dawn, listen to me, if you did something wrong, then just tell me. I won't be angry with you."

"O-okay. Well, I was kinda the one who poured that huge bucket of water on May." The coordinator confessed, her head so low with shame that it was practically hitting the ground."

Ash seemed horrified that one of his friends was cheating against another one, but Pikachu was genuinely disgusted and decided to run towards May. "Pikachu! Pikachu, come back!"

Choosing a Pokémon for the second round, May called out her whole team apart from Dragonair, who was already out of its PokéBall; Blaziken, Venusaur, Blastoise, Glaceon and Delcatty.

"Right, so I'm going to need another Pokémon for the Battle Rounds of the Contest and I really can't decide, so does anybody want to volunteer?" The brunette requested, hoping that at least one of her Pokémon would volunteer. None of them did, when suddenly, Pikachu came running in. All of May's Pokémon greeted Pikachu with warm smiled and waves, but he instantly ran to May and told her about Dawn, except it was, of course, in his own language.

"I'm sorry Pikachu, I'm not your trainer, so I don't understand what you're saying." May replied as she reassuringly petted the Electric-Type's head.

Pikachu looked down at the ground to show that he was disappointed, and then Blaziken made a suggestion, "BlaZi KenZi, BlaziKen KenZiBla?". May smiled once again and praised, "That's a brilliant idea, Blaziken!" She then turned and glanced at Pikachu. "Hey Pikachu, do you want to be my next Pokémon for the Battle Rounds of the Contest?"

"Pika, PiPikachu!" Pikachu answered, fistpumping the air. He said yes, and Blaziken reported this back to May.

The coordinator gave Pikachu a hug. "Oh my Arceus, you're amazing Pikachu!"

Out of the blue, Ash ran in, with Dawn slowly walking behind him.

"Don't tell her!" Dawn screamed. "She'll get annoyed with me!"

The raven-haired trainer sighed. "Dawn, I have to; she needs to know what you did so that we don't end up keeping secrets from one another."

"Don't tell me what about what Dawn did?" May questioned, suspecting that something wasn't right by the way Ash and Dawn were acting.

Ash looked May straight in the eye and said "Listen May, you need to know this. Do you remember when somebody poured that bucket of water onto you before and you slipped."

May pouted. "Of course I do... My clothes are still soaked to my skin. But go on..."

"Yeah, it was Dawn who did that." Ash admitted, not proud that Dawn adn't told May herself.

"She did WHAT!?" May asked, running over to Dawn and getting ready to push her, but her Pokémon were holding her back, with Pikachu perchind on May's shoulder, much to the shock of Ash.

Dawn gulped. "Yeah, that was me. I'm so sick of you getting treated like the 'Princess of Hoenn' when I'm just as good a coorindator as you."

"No you're not, I've been in four Grand Festivals and placed well in them all if we're going to brag."

"Heh... Wallace Cup, and that's all I need to say to you." Dawn teased with an overly-smug grin on her face."

May's face literally went on fire, and not even her Pokémon could kep her restrained at this point. The raging brunette punched Dawn full-force in the jaw bone and then she ran off crying. Pikachu and her Pokémon followed her, trying to get her to calm down.

"Dawn, that was out of hand. After all you've done to May today, you shouldn't have started teasing her." Ash scolded, trying to make Dawn see that she was in the wrong.

The blunette then looked Ash in the eye and said, "She taunted me about the fact that she's been to Grand Festivals more than I have, and that's only because she's been travelling for a whole while longer."

"Listen, there's no need to worry; you might not like each other, so don't try and score points against one another. It won't impress all of the other coordinators who just saw that, and it definitely won't impress me and Pikachu."

Dawn blushed and sunk her head, and Lopunny came out of her PokéBall and did the same at the mention of Pikachu.

The raven-haired trainer then started walking away. "Sorry Dawn, but I've gotta go and look for May, as well as Pikachu."

May's Pokémon/Pikachu were trying to cheer their trainer/friend up, and she just carried on walking. The sky had turned grey and it had started raining fairly heavily, and she wasn't in the mood to be cheered up. May and her Pokémon eventually reached the Pokémon Centre, but the brunette dashed into her room and slammed the door. She started sobbing on her pillow, and her Pokémon had to hear this. PIkachu knocked on the door, to which May said, "I'm sorry, Pikachu... I'm just really not in the mood to talk right now."

"Glaceon, GlaGla CeonEon, GlaCe." Glaceon whispered through the door, tryig to convince May to come out or let the Pokémon in.

"Okay, okay, you can come in." The depressed trainer groaned as she opened the door. "I don't know why I'm so sad, but there's nothing good about moping around by myself."

Somebody then knocked on the door. "M-May, ca-can I speak to you?" They asked, walking into the room. It turned out that this was Ash, and he had a very serious look on his face.

"Sure Ash, go ahead." May said, a smile now lighting up her face.

He looked at the floor. "If it isn't too harsh, can it be in private, please?"

May nodded. "Okay guys, return. Except for you, Blaziken, because you're my new Walking Pokémon!" She then proceeded to return all of her Pokémon - minus Blaziken - to their PokéBalls, and told Blaziken to stay inside.

Ash led May onto the balcony of her room, and he took a deep breath. "May, I have to say something, and it's really important. If you don't feel the same way, then feel free to say no, but I just have to get this off of my chest."

"Let me just stop you there Ash." May interrupted, putting her finger on his lips. "I love you. I really, really, really love you, and I want us to be together."

The raven-haired trainer's jaw dropped. "Wha-what!? You took the words right out of my mouth."

"You feel the same way?" May asked, placing her hand on the balcony.

Ash put his hand over May's, and he said, "Of course I do, and I want to be with you too."

**The funny thing is, I was listening to some dramatic music from R/B (can't remember the name of it) when writing the build-up to the fight scene. Then the evolution theme came on as I started writing the fight. XD**

**But yeah, it'd be great if you could leave a review for me. Those reviews help me with my writing and they give me lots of support, which is nice. To you reviewers so far; thanks, you're all awesome. :)**


	9. Confession Obsession

**This chapter mainly focuses on expanding the drama from the last chapter, so make sure that you've read it.**

**And I still don't own Pokémon.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Confession Obsession**

May and Ash walked back to the Contest Hall holding hands as their Pokémon followed them. Dawn was training her Pokémon when she saw them, and she was doing everything in her power to stop herself from hitting either one of them. _"I knew he liked May more than me... Oh well, he can tell everyone... AT HER FUNERAL!"_

The new couple avoided Dawn in case she would blow a fuse, so they proceeded towards to Contest Hall. The roof of the Hall was open because it was such a warm, sunny day. May told Ash to go to the seats so she could prepare for her Contest Battle against a random coordinator called Marina. When they were called to the stage, May and Marina released their Pokémon. May eventually decided to use after more careful thinking, and Marina had sent out a Mismagius.

_"This is going to be tough..." _May thought, assessing the Ghost-Type Pokémon. _"I'll let her have the first move, just to see what Mismagius is capable of."_

Marina told Mismagius to use Shadow Ball, and it immediately obeyed its trainer. May had Venusuar counter this with Razor Leaf, which caused an explosion of purple and green light. The crowd erupted with applause and cheers at this beautiful site.

Mismagius was then about to use Perish Song, but May quickly averted this crisis by making Venusaur use Sleep Powder. She combined this attack with a Vine Whip that could restrain Mismagius, too. Then, Venusuar instantly began charging up a SolarBeam to take advantage of the open roof. The attack charged in seconds, and did a lot of damage to Mismagius. Marina was shouting at her Pokémon, telling it to get up, but it was no use; May had told Venusaur to use her own attack called 'Razor Whip'. Venasaur nodded and prepared Razor Leaf, but gave the attack extra speed by hitting the leaves with Vine Whip.

Mismagius was unable to battle, and May was declared the winner. Ash, Pikachu and Blaziken were all cheering from the crowd, whereas Dawn was kicking a tree as she heard the crowd cheering for her rival. _"I swear to Arceus, I will have my revenge on her, for around the tenth time."_

May then had to face a youngster called Joey who sent out his Rattata. One Double Kick from Blaziken was all that it took to defeat this Pokémon, resulting in May's quickest Contest victory. Joey was upset that his 'Top Percentage Rattata' had lost its first ever Contest. Dawn was stopping herself from running onto the crowd and viciously attacking May, jealous of how well the brunette coordinator was doing in this Contest.

For the final, May was pitted against Harley, as she had thought. Harley sent out his Octilley, and May sent out Delcatty. The battle began as both coordinators wished each other luck, and the timer started.

"Delcatty, use Assist!" May shouted, hoping that Assist would pick a strong and beautiful attack. Delcatty then used Ice Beam, and it didn't do much damage, as it wasn't very effective.

Octillery was then told by Harley to use Sludge Bomb, which poisoned Delcatty. As both Pokémon had attacked, the poison chipped a bit from Delcatty's health.

Delcatty then used Thunderbolt, which caused Octillery a huge amount of damage. Pikachu cheered from the crowd, then telling Ash in 'PikachuSpeak' that it had taught Delcatty the move when all of the Pokémon were chasing May, and that it was a happy accident.

Octillery wasn't holding back and unleashed an 'Octazooka Rapid Fire', which covered Delcatty's eyes with ink. It then slipped on some more ink, and went to user Thunderbolt again, but it missed. Octillery then used Fire Blast. it was a direct hit, making Delcatty scream with pain.

Fortunately, Delcatty managed to wipe the ink from her eyes, and then she used a 'Thunderbolt Rapid Fire' to mimic Octillery's attack. The attacks hit the octapus Pokémon, but didn't manage to take it out. Harley grinned, and then he shouted, "Octillery, sweetie, use your Signal Beam-Fire Blast combination." Octillery nodded, and used Ice Beam, followed by Fire Blast. The Ice Beam froze Delcatty, and the Fire Blast melted the ice, but inflicted mammoth amounts of damage on Delcatty.

The cat-like Pokémon was flung to the ground, and struggled to get up. The whole crowd were rooting for Delcatty to stand up, and the support managed to give her the boost she needed. She got up, used DoubleSlap on Octillery, and made it faint. The battle was won by May, seconds before the timer was about to run out.

May was given the Oldale Ribbon, and an additional reward; a special item from Kalos known as Blazikenite. She intentaly gave it to Blaziken. The brunette then ran out of the Contest Hall as happy as she could be, to be meeted by Ash and Dawn.

"Well done, May!" Ash praised. "You rocked."

Trying to get involved in the conversation, Dawn asked, "So May, what's that rock thing that Blaziken's holding?"

"I dunno..." May answered, shrugging her shoulders. "I was told to give it to Blaziken, so that's what I did; it's meant to make it stronger in battle, I heard a coordinator say as I came out here, though. It's called Blazikenite, if I remembered."

"Can any other Pokémon use it?" Ash eagerly questioned. May, Dawn, Pikachu and Blaziken all facepalmed simultaneously.

"It's called BLAZIKENITE, Ash, what do you think?" Dawn remarked sarcastically.

The raven-haired trainer laughed as he scratched his head. "Oh yeah... I shoulda thought of that..."

"When's your Frontier Battle, Ash?" May asked politely.

Ash was trying to think. "Well, the Battle Arcade is on Route 102, so it's not that far away. I already know which Pokémon that I'm going to use; Pikachu, Riolu and Infernape. We've been training for it as well, and it's payed off. Riolu is getting along really well with my Pokémon, and he'sreally strong, so he'll be a great help in the battle against the Frontier Brain."

"That's nice." May replied, smiling. She then saw something in the grass. "Woah, what's that!?"

All of a sudden, a trio of Pokémon burst out of the bushes. One was a rabbit, another one was a fox, and the last one was a squid.

"Wait, what an odd group of Pokémon!" Dawn commented. "Either way, let's catch one each!" She added. She sent Prinplup out and it knocked out the fox with one Bubblebeam. She then threw a PokéBall at it, and it was caught. "Yes, I caught a fox-like Pokémon!"

May fell in love with the Squid and Glaceon knock it out with one Ice Beam. "These Pokémon are definitely at low levels." She then threw a PokéBall, and it didn't work. Before it could flee, she quickly threw another one, and it was caught. "Perfect, I caught an adorable squid Pokémon!"

"This rabbit is mine!" Ash claimed. Pikachu used one Iron Tail and took it out. Seeing as though he had a Great Ball, he threw it. The PokéBall shook for a few seconds, but eventually stopped. "I caught... A cartoony-rabbit Pokémon."

Dawn's Lopunny, May's Delcatty and Ash's Swellow were instantly transported back to their respective trainers' Pokémon storage facilities, and the PokéDex then corrected all three trainers at once.

"That fox-like Pokémon is Fennekin, the Fox Pokémon. It is a Fire-Type, and its ability is Blaze.

That adorable squid Pokémon is Inkay, the Revolving Pokémon. It is a Dark/Psychic-Type, and its ability is Contrary.

That cartoony-rabbit Pokémon is actually the recently-discovered Bunnelby, the Digging Pokémon. It is a Normal-Type, and its ability is Pick Up.

These Pokémon are all from the distant Kalos Region. They are very rare in Hoenn, so you are lucky to find them. Currently, these Pokémon have no attacks because they seem to be newborn."

" Newborn Kalos Pokémon? Awesome!" The trio of trainers cheered optimistically as they let their new Pokémon out. They all high-fived each other, and laughed when none of their hands touched each other. For the first time in what was seeming to be a long time, the group were happy and finally getting along with one another.

Suddenly, a trainer appeared behind the group. "U-um, hey, I-I'd like to spe-speak with Dawn, i-if tha-that's okay..." A Rattata then mimicked the same actions towards Dawn's Fennekin.

Dawn turned around wearily, and noticed that it was Joey from the Contest earlier. She then walked withhim to a nearby tree so that Ash and May couldn't hear them. Rattata and Fennekin did the same.

"Dawn, you-you're the one that go-got me into Co-Contests, and that's be-be-because... I LIKE YOU!"

The blunette was shocked by Joey's delcarations. "Listen, Joey, that's really sweet and all, but you're ten, and I'm twelve. That's too much of an age difference, for now. You seme like a really sweet guy, though, so don't let this put you down."

"Oh, okay... I-I guess th-that sounds rea-reasonable." Joey replied, feeling quite sad. "Well, you-you mi-might see me a-at mo-more Contests." The youngster then walked back to his Rattata, who seemed really upset too. It had just been turned down by Dawn's Fennekin. The two then looked at each other, and promised that they would beat Dawn in the Grand Festival.

"What was that about?" Ash asked Dawn and Pikachu asked Fennekin when they walked back.

The two both said, "Oh, it was nothing important..." in their languages. Pikachu and Ash just nodded and accepted that it was probably a private situation.

"Onwards to Route 102, then, I guess..." May said, trying to stop an awkward silence.

"I'm getting so pumped for my next battle now!" Ash cheered energetically, with Pikachu repeating him.

Unknown to May and Ash, Dawn was secretly plottion her revenge towards the pair. She had no ideas how she was going to execute her plan, but she had a genius idea; all it needed was a certain friend who she hadn't spoken to in a while.

* * *

**This chapter might seem a little fast-paced, but it's setting the tone for what's to come. Joey is going to be a recurring (and maybe comedic) rival to Dawn, seeking revenge. And just to make things crystal-clear, here are the trainers' teams:**

**Ash - Pikachu, Sceptile, Totodile, Infernape, Riolu and Bunnelby.**

**May - Blaziken, Venusaur, Blastoise, Glaceon, Dragonair and Inkay.**

**Dawn - Prinplup, Jolteon, Togekiss, Mamoswine, Quilava and Fennekin.**

**I'm trying to promote Generation VI and Kalos, which is why I edited the Blazikenite and the Pokémon References in (Ash was going to originally get a Skiddo, and May was going to get Dedenne). If you have any ideas for Gen VI references, or anything else for that matter, please leave a review.**

**NOTE: I'd just like to point something out; I'm going on holiday late next week, so I may not be able to post another chapter in a while. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this may cause...**


	10. The Battling Blues

**I've been on holiday, so sorry if the wait has been a little bit longer than usual. It's also been hard to think of ideas, as I'm no longer planning things ahead by much.**

**Do you think I own Pokémon? Well, I don't... If only...**

* * *

**Chapter 10: The Battling Blues**

As the group searched for the hidden Battle Arcade on Route 102, they sent out their Pokémon to help them, including the new additions to their teams. Bunnelby started digging deep underground, but Togekiss pulled it up before it could get any further. "Bunnelby, if you can find the Battle Arcade, I'll give you a Poffin!" Ash shouted, knowing that Bunnelby would enjoy a Sweet Poffin after digging.

"Come on Togekiss, let Bunnelby dig; the Battle Arcade could be hidden underground, you never know." Dawn told her Pokémon. Obediently, Togekiss let go of Bunnelby.

May and Ash silently watched their Pokémon bond as they searched. Pikachu was running around the Route with Fennekin and Riolu, Blaziken was acting like a father to Totodile and Inkay, and Glaceon and Sceptile were testing their moves on one another whilst they sprinted all over the place. Dawn's Pokémon, however, were keeping themselves to themselves, apart from Togekiss, who was mothering some of the smaller Pokémon, like Bunnelby.

"Wait, I think I can see something!" May shouted, running towards a neon light she could see that appeared to be far away.

Ash and Dawn shrugged as they followed the eager brunette. Likewise, the Pokémon ran after their trainers. The group looked like a massive stampede, when suddenly, a woman approached them. At this point, the trainers returned their non-walking Pokémon.

"I'm assuming that you're looking for the Battle Arcade?" The woman asked, flicking her hair as she did so. "Well then, follow me." She then ran towards the Battle Arcade.

Ash and Pikachu followed Dahila as fast as they could, whereas May and Dawn just walked.

When they all arrived at the Battle Arcade, they were overwhelmed by walls of bright colours, gigantic roulette wheels and neon signs as far as the eye could see. "Wow, it's amazing here!" May cheered, entranced by the vibrant surroundings.

"Thank you!" Dahila replied. "I designed most of it myself; it just had to be scaled down because my design would have consumed the entire Route."

"This is the scaled down version!?" Dawn asked, unable to believe it. "Then your design must have been absolutely gigantic; maybe even bigger than Vegas."

Dahila giggled. "You flatter me... Now, which one of you is going to be battling me?"

"That'll be me!" Ash shouted, Pikachu excitedly mimicking him.

"I look forward to our battle." The Frontier Brain commented. "And trust me when I say this, but skill isn't enough to defeat me; luck is a key factor. And before we train for our battle, I apologise, but I never caught any of your names."

Ash nodded once again. "That's fine by me. So, when are we going to battle?" The three trainers then took it in turn to introduce themselves.

Dahila thought for a moment. "You know, there's no reason why now isn't a good time."

All of a sudden, a suspicious black van with a pinkish-red 'R' drove into the Battle Arcade and zoomed out of the area within a flash, followed by a group of Officer Jenny and their Arcanine. Police cars and helicopters also pursued the van.

Dahila chased after one of the Officer Jenny and asked, "Officer Jenny! What in the name of Arceus is going on here!?"

"I'm sorry Dahila, but Team Rocket have stolen hundreds of Pokémon, and they're escaping faster than our team of Arcanine can run." Jenny answered, looking glum.

Ash thought for a minute. "Wait, I have a plan! Bunnelby, come on out!" He shouted. Bunnelby then stared at Ash, waiting to be given a command. "Bunnelby, dig after that evil van and I'll give you lots of Poffins!"

At the mention of the word 'Poffins', Bunnelby began digging towards the Team Rocket van, eventually reaching the group of Arcanine and the police vehicles. Much to everyone's surprise, Bunnelby spent no time overtaking the Arcanine and reaching the van. He then dug his head up and punched the van, causing it to roll onto its side.

"Wow, he sure does dig fast..." Dahila mumbled, astounded by the speed of such a small Pokémon.

"When you promise him food, he can pretty much gain unreal powers." Ash said, proudly watching his Pokémon.

May giggled. "Just like Ash..."

The raven-haired trainer

As if it wasn't already chaotic, two Team Rocket grunts and a Pokémon disguised as a grunt ran out of the van. Not a second later, they grabbed Bunnelby, pushed the van back up by themselves and drove off again, barely before anyone could have blinked.

The Arcanine shortly reached the scene with their Officer Jennys, wondering where Bunnelby had gone.

Ash and May followed them on May's Venusaur, whereas Dawn and Dahila travelled on their Mamoswine and Zapdos, respectively.

"Team Rocket stole Bunnelby!" Ash bellowed. "I'll never forgive them if I don't get him back! Come on, let's go!"

Dahila flew in front of Ash and then stated, "Ash, now is not the time to go; Team Rocket are almost certainly expecting you. Give it a couple of hours, and then we'll go and get Bunnelby. It sounds harsh, but if you go into what we can imagine is a Team Rocket HQ with no plan, you'll either be killed or held in one of their prisons."

"You're right..." Ash mumbled. "But they could be hurting Bunnelby like they do to other Pokémon!"

May put her finger on Ash's lips. "Calm down, Ash.. Bunnelby might have been stolen, but like Dahila said, we need a plan. Personally, I think that one of us disguising as a member of Team Rocket and pretending that the others are prisoners could work."

"No, that's too cliché; they'll see right through it. We should simply all pretend to be in Team Rocket, but Ash, we'll need to put our walking Pokémon away." Dawn planned.

"PIKA PIPIKA CHUPICHU KACHUPIKA!" Pikachu screamed as he jumped off Ash and crossed his arms. The Electric Mouse Pokémon frowned, but Blaziken and Prinplup tried to cheer him up by making funny faces.

Ash then had an idea. "I know that Pikachu doesn't want to go into his PokéBall, so maybe our Walking Pokémon can just stay here."

"Sure, and my Zapdos and the Officer Jennys will protect them." Dahila added, trying to reassure both Ash and Pikachu. The trainers then looked over at the scarily large group of green-haired, female police officers, who all gave reassuring smiles and nodded in synch.

May looked at Ash and Dawn before asking, "Wait, do you think that those two Grunts and their Pokémon we saw coming out of the van could be Jessie, James and Meowth?"

"I doubt it, because they'd have blasted off by now." Dawn joked. "Actually, it could be a possibility... After all, if we're not there to work out that they're thieves in disguise, they can probably manage to get away after some of their crazy schemes. You never know, we just might have been the only reason that they failed at everything..."

Ash looked at the floor. "Well, us making a little group of three members of Team Rocket fail the simple-looking missions they were given hardly gives them a motive to steal Bunnelby."

"Ash, they are ruthless thieves who steal any Pokémon." Dahila stated. "Also, those 'simple-looking' missions could have been very important to Team Rocket's goals. And additionally, I saw in the papers how you and your friends from Unova stopped one of Team Rocket's most ambitious schemes yet at almost the last moment. Is that enough of a motive for you?"

"Now that you mention it..." The raven-haired trainer though-out-loud, recalling when he, Iris and Cilan put a stop to Team Rocket's attempts to gain control of the Unova Region.

May sighed. "Well, moping about the past won't change the present. We need to co me up with every detail of the plan before we enter their base."

"I think I've got it!" Dawn cheered as an idea for a 'great' plan came to her mind.

* * *

"Finally, we've managed to steal one of the twerp's Pokémon." One of the Rocket Grunts said as she took off her hat, revealing long, curly pink hair.

The other Grunt smiled as he also took off his hat, which showed purple hair. "This is only a baby Bunnelby, which means that we didn't get Pikachu... Again..."

The Pokémon, a Meowth, then frowned as he remembered something. "But if we know those twerps, Bunnelby won't be ours for very long."

"So, how many Pokémon did you steal?" A videophone said. The person on the videophone had altered their voice so that it was a deeper, more 'intimidating' sound that could strike fear into the strongest-hearted of people.

"Boss, we stole hundreds of them! Our scam worked, and on the way back here to HQ, we came across a Bunnelby that was the twerp's, and we stole it!"

The man on the videophone then asked, "The twerp? Who is the twerp?"

"The twerp is Ash Ketchum, Boss." The purple-haired man answered.

The man on the videophone suddenly went into a rage. "Ah yes, Ash Ketchum... He's the one who ruined our plans to conquer Unova, and our plans to capture Mewtwo! He degraded Team Rocket to nothing but a laughing stock, until he ruined the other evil teams as well... And now that we have his Bunnelby, we can lure him to our base, and unleash PROJECT: Hell in Hoenn. I doubt he'll be a pest to Team Rocket much longer, regardless of if you can capture his Pikachu."

The trio and their boss cackled as they thought about their 'master plan' to get revenge on Ash after what seemed to be years of failed plans and money losses.

* * *

**Team Rocket are back! I'm not going to say much about their return, other than it's not really going to focus on the TRio that much, but rather their evil plans that could put the entire Hoenn Region in danger. Also, what was Dawn's plan? I guess you'll just have to read to find out! :D**

**But if you have any other ideas for Team Rocket, any ideas in general, or if you just want to leave your opinion, please write a review. Your reviews help me write because of the support you give (and the swelling that my ego gets :3).**


	11. Vs Team Rocket!

**This chapter was hard to write; I was trying to make it dramatic, so I had hundreds of ideas coming into (and out of) my mind. I got it out within a few days though, because it was written quickly (the ideas were too much to bear for a while), and I'd forgot to post the toher chapter, which had been finished for nearly a week, so I wanted to make it up to people who were reading.**

**Long rant-ish thing over, here's the dislcaimer that you've grown to love: I don't own Pokémon. :'(**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Vs. Team Rocket!**

"Right, so are we all ready?" Dahila asked, putting on her Team Rocket Grunt hat.

May nodded. "I think so. We've all got our Team Rocket uniforms on, and there's not much else we can do until we get into their HQ... Let's just hope that Dawn's plan works."

"Oh, it will..." Dawn said confidently. "It's such a simple plan, but the folks at Team Rocket won't expect it until the last minute."

"We all need to make sure that we don't get hurt, though." Ash cautioned, being serious for one of the first times of his life.

Dahila agreed, and added, "If you see anyone get hurt parcticularly badly, abandon the plan and move straight to Plan B."

"Got it." The three trainers said at once.

"So I'll ask once more..." Dahila mumbled quietly. "Are we all ready?"

The three trainers once again said simultaneously, "Yes we are!"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" The Frontier Brain shouted optimistically, running towards the Team Rocket HQ as the three trainers followed her.

* * *

The Team Rocket HQ was a gigantic labyrinth of PokéBall containers, mission planning rooms and complex research facilities. The group of four all stared at every nook and cranny of the base, taking note of anything and everything that they could see.

"Hmm... I don't think I've ever seen you before." The pink-haired woman who stole Bunnelby said quite calmly. Within a second, her attitude changed. "ID cards! NOW!"

The group hectically got out their ID cards that were forged by the group of Officer Jennys; they looked real. In addition to pretending to be in Team Rocket, the trainers were all using fake names so that they wouldn't be recognised as early.

The woman who got the ID cards instantly gave them to her purple-haired accomplice, who got out a scanner and checked them. "Yep, their cards add up, so they're legit. Don't be so quick to judge, Jessie."

"Oh come on now, James, they look really suspicious... Everyone knows that Team Rocket members walk around in groups of two! A group of four is really out of place!" Jessie screamed, her temper not calming down at all.

"Wait, we're not a group of four!" Dahila answered back to Jessie. "We're just looking for the boss. Dr. Zager told us to look for him."

Meowth, who was walking with the two Grunts, then roared, "Don't answer back to your superiors! But anyway, the boss is in his room right now. Lukcily for you and Dr. Zager, he's not in a meeting, but be quick!"

May put on a deeper voice so that the trio wouldn't recognise her. "Well, see you, then." The quartet walked off towards where they had been told 'the boss's' office was. When they were there, Dawn knocked. Like May, she deepened her voice. "Sorry to disturb you, boss, but can we come in?"

"Sure, but make it quick! I have a meeting soon, so hurry up!" 'The boss' shouted. When the group entered, they saw a middle-aged man stroking his Persian. "What is it!?" He snapped; clearly, he was a very busy man.

Ash spoke with a deeper voice, like May and Dawn did, "Well, boss, the area is surrounded by a group of Officer Jennys. If I was you, I'd get out of here."

The man twitched. He then pressed a button on his desk to close his office door. "Ha...Ha... Do you think I'm stupid!? Nobody knows where this base is... Not even Officer Jenny herself. Now tell me, who are you!?"

As expected, the man wasn't rattled by the Officer Jennys. However, this all changed when they started demanding things through a megaphone, "Giovanni, we know you're in there. Come out of the base with your hands up! Also, make all of your Grunts turn themselves in to us before we arrest them all."

Giovanni hesitated for a moment, but then he jumped off his desk, and whispered to Persian "Get the four of them in the corner; we're going to make this a hostage situation!" The Pokémon complied, and instantly chased the trainers into a corner. "I'm very sorry, Officer Jenny, but I'm afraid you're not in the position to give me commands. After all, I have your four moles as hostages!" Giovanni boasted, which worried the police officers and the trainers even more. As they worried, Giovanni grabbed a rope and tied all four of the trainers together in the corner of the room so that they couldn't escape.

Another Officer Jenny used her own megaphone. "Moles? They went in there to get their Pokémon back! We weren't involved in that! But if any of those hostages are injured by so much as a single scratch, I'm just letting you know that we have hundreds of officers on standby, so you WILL be arrested. Do you understnad, Giovanni?"

Chuckling wildly at Officer jenny's threats, Giovanni grabbed Bunnelby by the ears from his drawer. "You mean this pathetic Bunnelby? You can have it back then, trainers; if you can catch it!" The man then threw Bunnelby out of the window, still cackling. The Pokémon was terrified as he fell, but Dahila's Zapdos quickly managed to fly up and catch it.

"ZaZapdos?" Zapdos asked Bunnelby. It looked like the legendary was asking something like "Are you okay?"

"Bunnelby... BuBuNe ByNe!" He answered. His response looked like he said, "Yeah, I'm fine... Thanks for saving me!"

Ash was relieved as he heard Bunnelby and Zapdos speaking from outside, but he was still terrified of Persian, who was slowly nearing the four humans. Making sure that he could die feeling happy, he quickly kissed May, much to Dawn's annoyance. The romantic scene was cut short by Persian extending its claws and jumping towards them. All four of the trainers closed their eyes and saw their lives flash before their eyes, from their early childhood to this very moment.

"Ow! What the heck!?" Giovanni shouted. "You!? How did you get back up here!?"

"Per... Persian!?" Persian screamed, clearly sounding confused. The group opened their eyes to see Bunnelby gnawing on Giovanni's leg, whilst the Pikachu, Blaziken and Piplup jumped through the window in the nick of time.

May cheered, "You guys! If there could have been a perfect time for you to show up and save the day, it would be now."

"Now kick Persian's butt and cut these ropes!" Dawn screeched happily. The Pokémon nodded and attacked Giovanni and Persian, who opened the door and fleed before locking it from the other side.

Dahila frowned. "Damn Giovanni! Now how do we get out..." At this point, a familiar Pokémon's cry could be heard. "Zapdos!" The Pokémon said loudly to get attention. "That's it!" Dahila stated. "Everyone, jump on Zapdos!" Within an instant, all of the trainers and Pokémon had leapt out of the window, and onto Zapdos' back.

Within seconds they were back on the floor, to be greeted by dozens - if not hundreds - of happy Officer Jennys. "Way to go!" One of them shouted. "You showed Giovanni!"

Just then, a large bunch of helicopters with pink 'R's on the side flew off into the distance.

"But he got away... Along with all of the Grunts..." Dawn sighed sadly.

Another Officer Jenny sook her head. "Now don't you worry about that; that's our job. We'll find him soon when he starts making his Grunts commit similar crimes. What we should be doing now is getting the stolen Pokémon back before Team Rocket could return, though!"

* * *

When all of the stolen Pokémon had been recovered, the Officer Jennys bid farewell to the group and wished them the best for the future.

"So tell me, Ash..." Dahila said in a tone that the girls picked up on instantly. "What was with you kissing May when Persian was ready to attack before?"

May decided to answer that question. "Oh, well... Um... Yeah, we're together." Ash just nodeed and gave May a nervous smile, which she returned.

"What about you, Dawn? Do you have your eyes set on anyone?" The Frontier Brain asked, trying to get to know the trainers before their battle.

"I have my eyes on someone, but it's complicated." She whispered, looking at Ash. "And someone else too, but that one's less complicated."

Dahila simply nodded. "I see... Now Ash, are you looking forward to our battle tomorrow?"

Ash jumped and fist-pumped the air. "You betcha! I might not have got much training in today because of what happened, but that doesn't mean that I'm any less excited!"

Pikachu mirrored his trainer's actions. "PikaChu! PiKaPiPiChu!"

"Oh yeah, and I forgot to say thank you, guys." Ash said, looking at all of the Pokémon. "Without you, we'd all be goners."

"Thank you!" The other humans said in unison, causing their Pokémon to blush.

All of the trainers giggled, as well as Pikachu and the other Pokémon eventually.

* * *

**And that brings this hopefully dramatic chapter to an end. If you didn't like it (or if you did :P), or there's something that you would want changing, then just send a review. The people who have reviewed so far have gave me so many great ideas!**


	12. Gambling Addiction!

**It's been a while since I posted the last chapter... Sorry about that. I've ben given a lot of project homeworks and my life is kinda crappy right now for a teenager, so there's been a bit of a delay. Anyway, here we go...**

* * *

**Chapter 12: Gambling Addict**

_"Wow! It's an Arceus!" shouted Ash, staring in wonder at the legendary Pokémon. "I'm gonna catch it. Go, Master Ball!"_

_As the Master Ball collided with the legendary Pokémon, it opened, concealed the Pokémon and closed. The ball shook three times, and a cluster of starts surrounded the ball, signalling that it had been caught._

_Ash's jaw dropped. "Wow, I've caught it! May, Dawn, Pikachu, I did it... I'VE CAUGHT AN ARCEUS!"_

_Gary Oak and his Pokémon randomly appeared from nowhere and then walked over to Ash. "So Ashy boy, I'm guessing you're as weak as ever. Let's battle to settle who's stronger, once and for all." teased Gary._

_Ash nodded, and he threw out Arceus' Master Ball. Gary's mouth hit the floor, and he did seconds later. It didn't help when Ash had just made Arceus use Judgement on all of Gary's Pokémon._

* * *

A loud beeping noise entered the room.

"Huh? What happened?" Ash asked as he rubbed his eyes. "Where's Arceus?"

May giggled at Ash's random question. "What Arceus? I've never seen one in person before..."

Ash's head sunk. "Aw... It was just a dream... It felt so real, though..."

"Don't worry, Ash... Changing the subject a little, it's time for your battle with Dahila today! Are you pumped?" Asked May, trying to cheer her boyfriend up.

"You bet! Pikachu, Riolu and Infernape are going to win me my first Hoenn Frontier Symbol!"

"Well, don't get too cocky... The Pokémon that you send out are completely random, and you have no control over who you can send out."

"WHAT!? How do you know that? I had a plan and everything, May..."

"I researched it when we got to the Pokémon Centre last night. I did a quick search of the Hoenn Pokémon Battle Arcade, and quite a lot of information came up."

"So, what else should I know?"

"Hm... Let's see... A random effect will come onto the field at the end of each turn, the battlefield will randomly change when a Pok\'e9mon faints, and that's all I can remember..."

Pikachu strolled into the room, still yawning. As he heard May telling Ash about the complete chance required to win in the Battle Arcade, he said to his trainer, "Pika... PikaChu ChuChuKa PiChu KaPiPika ChuKaPi."

"You're right Pikachu..." Agreed Ash, "The craziness of how random the Battle Arcade is could be bad for Dahila, too. Let's go and challenger her now, Pikachu!" As he said this, both his and Pikachu's stomachs rumbled in synch. The two turned red with embarrassment.

At that moment, Blaziken walked into the room and he told them in his own language that breakfast was ready, which made Pikachu run out. The trainers quickly got changed and followed their Pokémon.

When they arrived at the breakfast hall, May, Ash, Pikachu and Blaziken were greeted by Dawn, Prinplup and Dahila.

"Are you looking forward to your battle today, Ash?" Asked Dawn, who was getting excited as she would be watching a fun and unique battle today. Prinplup mirrored Dawn's eagerness.

Dahila nodded. "I was about to ask you the same question. So, do you want to start our duel straight after breakfast, Ash?"

"Sure!" The raven-haired trainer replied excitedly. Pikachu also gave a huge grin. The duo then began eating food at speeds that would put a family or Snorlax to shame.

* * *

As the group walked towards the Battle Arcade, Ash and Pikachu trailed behind because of their bloated tummies.

Eventually, they made it to the grand building, which managed to make everyone even more pumped up.

"Welcome to the Battle Arcade!" Dahila cheered confidently. "Just so you know, as with all of the Battle Frontier battles in Hoenn, this will be televised, so be ready to lose on national television."

Dawn observed Dahila and said to May, "She seems confident, doesn't she?" The brunette simply nodded, still awestruck by the amazing Battle Arcade.

"Televised or not, I'm pretty sure it will be you who'll be losing on national television." Ash taunted, making Pikachu laugh.

* * *

It was time for the battle to begin. "Will the challenger, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, please take his place on the podium?" The referee asked. The trainer nodded and instantly made his way to the challenger's podium. Dahila did the same, instead she made her way to a personalised podium, with a dice symbol on it.

"I'll ask you one more time, Ash... Are you ready to be defeated?" Asked Dahila as she gave a huge jump into the air, as well as a wave to the crowd.

Ash simply grinned and commented, "I'm ready to battle, alright... But I'm not ready to be defeated!"

"This will be a one-on-one battle with three Pokémon per side. The Pokémon will be selected randomly, and substitutions are allowed by either side, but they will also be randomly selected. Let the battle begin!"

The machine generated a random Pokémon from each trainer's party... For Ash, it was Pikachu, and for Dahila, it was Togekiss. The battlefield was an aquatic one, and Pikachu's HP was lowered by 20%.

"Pikachu, don't worry about that disadvantage, and use Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded. Pikachu instantly complied, but Togekiss elegantly dodged the attack.

Dahila smirked. "Now that you've dodged Thunderbolt, send an Arua Sphere that they can't dodge their way." Togekiss followed its orders. Pikachu was sent flying by the beautiful Aura Sphere.

"Thunderbolt!" Ash shouted. Pikachu performed the attack, and it was a direct hit. Togekiss flew down into the water, creating a huge splash.

Pikachu took the chance to use Thunder, and it quickly spread throughout the water. Togekiss then floated to the water's surface with swirly eyes. "Togekiss is unable to battle! Now it's time to spin the roulette wheel!" The referee informed. Pikachu was frozen by the roulette wheel, and Dahila's random Pokémon was Blaziken. The battlefield became a plain one.

May's Blaziken fell in love with the Female Blaziken, and started cheering for it, before May slapped it over the head. "Don't cheer for that Blaziken because you've got a crush on it... Be a friend and cheer for Pikachu, even if it is frozen!"

Blaziken blushed, which caused Dawn and Prinplup to giggle.

Dahila's Blaziken used Flamethrower, and it managed to thaw Pikachu out without defeating it. Dahila facepalmed when she realised this, and waited for Ash's move.

"Pikachu, use Agility, and then a Quick Attack!" All of a sudden, Pikachu crashed straight into Dahila's Blaziken, without even being seen by the eyes of most trainers.

Before Pikachu could get away, however, Dahila's Blaziken grabbed its tail and used DynamicPunch. Pikachu was flung into the air, and returned to the ground with swirly-eyes. "Pikachu is unable to battle. Once again, we'll spin the roulette wheel!" Bunnelby was sent out, Blaziken was paralysed, and the battlefield became a rocky one.

As Blaziken's speed was lowered, Bunnelby took the chance to use Dig, which landed as the Fire/Fighting-Type had no time to dodge.

Blaziken then went to use Fire Punch, and it hit, which hurled Bunnelby into one of the rocks. Before it could be damaged by the impact, however, it used Dig once more, and when it hit Blaziken, the fully evolved starter Pokémon had been quickly taken out. "Blaziken is unable to battle!" The referee commentated. "As we did before, we'll spin the roulette wheel!". The wheel poisoned Bunnelby, made the weather rainy, turned the battlefield into a grassy one, and made Dahila's next Pokémon Zapdos. Ash took the opportunity to switch out to another Pokémon, and he ended up with Totodile.

Zapdos instantly used Thunder, and Totodile was almost knocked out in one hit. It knew it was going to faint, however, so it took the chance to use Hydro Pump, which hit Zapdos' wing. The legendary Pokémon fell a few metres, and attacked Totodile with Drill Peck. Totodile fainted, so Bunnelby was automatically sent out. "Totodile is unable to battle! Seeing as though this is the last round, we'll do a double roulette spin!" The results for the spins were:

Spin 1: Zapdos' HP down 20%, Bunnelby getting a Pecha Berry and a Sandstorm.

Spin 2: Bunnelby's Speed up 1 stage, Zapdos getting an Oran Berry and a desert battlefield.

Bunnelby watched as the sandstorm chipped a bit from Zapdos' health. the Digging Pok\'e9mon then used Tackle, which made Zapdos fall to the floor even more. It hadn't fainted, but it was showing signs of fatigue that Bunnelby wasn't. It used Quick Attack, but Bunnelby dug under the ground to avoid the attack. Sandstorm then swept the stage again, and Zapdos screeched with pain. Bunnelby used one more Tackle attack, and Zapdos fainted, against all odds.

"Zapdos is unable to battle! Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town is the winner of the match!" The referee announced as the crowd bursted with applause. May, Dawn and their starters jumped out of the stands and ran towards Ash.

Dahila then walked up to the three. "Ash, that was one of the best battles I've had since I became a Frontier Brain, and I'm sincerely honoured to award to with the Chance Symbol!"

Ash thanked Dahila. "Alright, I got... A Chance Symbol!" He jumped in the air, and Pikachu, Bunnelby and Totodile followed him, all sounding happy.

* * *

The group walked away from the Battle Arcade as sunset approached, and they waved to Dahila as she faded into the distance.\par

However, something was lurking in the bushes. It was watching Ash, Pikachu, May, Blaziken, Dawn and Prinplup when they walked away, and it followed them in its disguise as a Patrat.

* * *

**So, another chapter with a lot more going on in it. The battles may seem rushed, but that's based on my experiences in the Battle Arcade.**

**And who or what was that 'Patrat' lurking in the bushes? There's only one way to find out, and that's to read the next chapter. **

**Also, please leave a review. Every single one I've got so far has gave me the support and encouragement to carry on, even with school and other things, so anything you can say about the story so far would be great.**

**NOTE: I'm currently looking for a cover. If anybody would like to design one, then just let me know. You'll get credit in the description of the story, and if you need any help with anything I'd more than gladly return it to you.**

**Advert over, please look forward to reading the next chapter!**


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